• Efstathios Karamanos, Pedro G Teixeira, Emre Sivrikoz, Stephen Varga, Konstantinos Chouliaras, Obi Okoye, and Peter Hammer.
• Division of Acute Care Surgery (Trauma, Emergency Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care), University of Southern California-Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles County General Hospital (LAC + USC), 2051 Marengo Street, C5L100, Los Angeles, CA 90033-4525, USA. Electronic address: ef.karamanos@gmail.com.
• Am. J. Surg. 2014 Sep 1;208(3):363-71.

BackgroundIntracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is a standard of care in severe traumatic brain injury when clinical features are unreliable. It remains unclear, however, whether elevated ICP or decreased cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) predicts outcome.MethodsThis is a prospective observational study of patients sustaining severe blunt head injury, admitted to the surgical intensive care unit at the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center between January 2010 and December 2011. The study population was stratified according to the findings of ICP and CPP. Primary outcomes were overall in-hospital mortality and mortality because of cerebral herniation. Secondary outcomes were development of complications during the hospitalization.ResultsA total of 216 patients met Brain Trauma Foundation guidelines for ICP monitoring. Of those, 46.8% (n = 101) were subjected to the intervention. Sustained elevated ICP significantly increased all in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 3.15 [1.11, 8.91], P = .031) and death because of cerebral herniation (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 9.25 [1.19, 10.48], P = .035). Decreased CPP had no impact on mortality.ConclusionsA single episode of sustained increased ICP is an accurate predictor of poor outcomes. Decreased CPP did not affect survival.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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